Wednesday, 11 January 2017

Music Curated for You, Here on Radio 2

I go back far enough to remember when Radio 2 (and Radio 1)
closed down at midnight and didn't come back on-air until 6am. There was
nothing but dead air, save for the occasional test tone. Insomniacs and night
shift workers (always the two 'groups' that are trotted out on these occasions)
could only get their overnight radio on Luxembourg, until 3am, the World
Service, one of the many foreign stations on medium wave and long wave or one
of the few ILR stations that provided a 24-hour service.

All that changed, at least as far as Radio 2 was concerned,
when You and the Night and the Music
filled the 'gap' from January 1979 and there was a friendly voice, picked from
the team of continuity announcers, to either lull you to sleep or keep you
awake, depending on whether you were operating heavy machinery or not!

I mention this bit of radio history in light of the
announcement from Radio 2 this week that from next month there will be no live
overnight programmes on the station between midnight and 5 am. (And indeed from
10pm to 5 am on some nights of the week). All due to budget cuts of course. The
fallout from this is the loss of Janice Long and Alex Lester, aka The Dark
Lord, both of whom enjoy a loyal following. Those overnight shows apparently
pick up an audience of about 900,000. Huey Morgan and Bob Harris's shows at the
weekend remain unscathed, and re-scheduled at a more user-friendly hour.

In their place we are promised the continuation of the
repeat of some music shows, e.g. Pick of
the Pops, Sounds of the 60s and,
rather more curiously, Radio 2 Playlists
"which are uniquely curated by our leading music presenters and music team
and that our audience can enjoy on the radio or on demand". In other words
a 3-hour jukebox service. The fact that it can be enjoyed "on demand"
is a little disingenuous; so can the rest of Radio 2's output including the
shows that currently get an overnight repeat. And while we're on the subject
since when did "curated" replace "selected" or "chosen"?

So far the reaction to this announcement has, understandably,
been critical. How can what is claimed to be Europe's top music station not
offer live overnight radio? Why cut the After Midnight shows when other
presenters (insert name here) are paid mega-bucks? Given that the big
commercial groups offer live radio in the wee small hours why can't the BBC?

By my reckoning this change pushes the total number of
pre-recorded shows (or not live) from 19% to 32% of the station's weekly output
- the actual figure depending on whether or not Paul O'Grady makes it into the
studio and if Dermot O'Leary is on X Factor
duty.

After 38 years of night-time broadcasting it's a pretty
sorry state of affairs when a substantial part of the station's listenership
are disenfranchised and can no longer enjoy the intimacy and companionship that
only live radio can offer.

As for Janice and Alex they will, we are told, continue to broadcast on BBC radio. The
reality is, I suspect, that we'll see
them get a regular gig on BBC local radio. You can hear Alex Lester talking candidly to Stuart Clarkson about Radio 2's decision on this week's Radio Today podcast.

For the record

The current schedule with two hours of overnight repeats
started in October 2014 but Radio 2 wasn't averse to putting out repeats
before, albeit limited to just an hour. When You and the Night and the Music (1979-84) started it was live music
and chat with pre-recorded features. The budget was a pittance and needletime
so restricted that it only allowed for two records in a 3 or 4 hour show. An
hour's worth of repeats of the like of Two's
Best or Folk on 2 started in 1982
but between 1985 and January 1990 it was music all the way with an hour long
sequence called A Little Night Music filling
the gap.

Again there were repeats in 1990 and 1991 but the majority
of the overnight hours consisted of Night
Ride (which incorporated A Little
Night Music until July 1992) and an early show kicking off at 4am, both
presented by a roster of continuity announcers. Alex Lester started his
reign as king of the overnights from September 1993 with a 3am show. The Night Ride title was dropped in 1995 but
the presenters remained unchanged with either Steve Madden or Charles Nove
taking the lion's share of the midnight to 3am slot. By late 1998 Katrina
Leskanich was drafted into the post-midnight show until April 2000 when Janice
Long took over. Alex and Janice have remained as the main weekday overnight
presenters ever since.

2 comments:

Worth mentioning that Sunrise Radio, not quite the biggest or most heavily funded station in the UK, has just introduced what I think is live presentation overnight this month (certainly it isn't non-stop music as it previously was).

And what has happened to the Radio 2 playlist lately? I listen to R2 not just because of the music they play but also because of the music they DON'T play. Since a couple of months ago the station has been playing songs that would never have made it to the playlist previously (TLC feat. Snoop Dog being an example). I almost feel embarrassed for the presenters who are having to broadcast some of these songs. If I wanted to listen to this stuff, I'd tune in to Capital or Heart.

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About Me

Hailing originally from Hull and spending most of my life in East Yorkshire I'm now resident in France.
For over 30 years I've been interested in radio, tv and film and have an archive of off-air recordings and radio-related material.
I'm not the Andy Walmsley that designs sets or produces tv programmes.
Professionally I worked in Local Government.
My wife Val works for Beaux Villages Immobilier.